Cultural Differences (Shakira in Spanish and English, Hips don’t lie)

One of the artists whose music I listen to intermediately is Shakira–I first really started listening two summers ago while taking Spanish at UC Santa Cruz. What is fun about her is that most of her music can be found in Spanish and is dancible and unique. However one interesting analysis, now possible through YouTube and other media distributors, is to contrast how she (and other artists) perform with different crowds.

Here Shakira is performing “Hips Don’t Lie” feat. Wyclef Jean for the Latin Billboard Awards in 2006. The crowds are yelling, she is dressed colorfully but relatively simply and her hair is pulled back into a pony-tail.

Now see her perform the exact same song for the 2007 Grammy Awards. She dressed in a flashy cloth of gold top and skirt. Her hair is teased unto its own death and she is surrounded by backup dancers. This entire performance shows a lot more money–see expensive lighting, staging and set.

I like the first version much better. I guess this is the trouble of crossing over between genres–Latin pop and American pop music seem to have very different expectations. I like artists who look like they did their own makeup :-D. But as she says at the beginning of Underneath Your Clothes, in the music video:

“well I think that when music penetrates people’s heart, something like a connection is produced between the audience and the performer, isn’t it?… poetry, concerts and even dancing… not any kind of dancing, but DANCING” (warning: user translation. This is from the YouTube commenter uanmabcn87, however this translation follows what I understood her to say :-D)

Inspirational Quote:

In journalism, there has always been a tension between getting it first and getting it right. – Ellen Goodman